Chapter 205 - In A Blink Of An Eye

I didn't have time to react, much less try to cast anything again. These damn vampires and their superspeed! They moved with the speed of light, it seemed—and in this case, they didn't move at all. I wouldn't have noticed anything if I wasn't looking at the world mostly through my well at the moment.

If stares were material things, this how they would look like—like the thin strings that shot out of JJ's and Desmond's eyes. They met midway, but didn't intercept each other, instead slipping by and into their heads. In a way, it looked like they shot thin feelers at each other, and these, I checked, were made from power.

Just that, power. With additional aspects defining it, but power—and yes, power itself was an aspect too, of course. Vampires were full of it, of physical power, and of magical one. This time, I could see, if I looked close enough, into thoughts, emotions and memories, how JJ and Desmond used that power to fight each other.

Or I could try, at least, because I didn't understand a thing of what was going on and who was winning. With a heart in my throat, I hoped it was JJ. He wasn't so sure of himself for nothing, right?

Then again, Desmond was pretty sure of himself, too. That was the problem.

A second later, I shifted in my seat, thinking about going for Desmond again. He looked pretty distracted, and—

The string between him and JJ snapped, and Desmond fell to his knees with a thud. Then, with a grace that vampires apparently had even when unconscious, his body toppled and sprawled on the floor. The thoughts and emotions in him dimmed one by one until only a little was left to show that he was still alive.

Next to me, JJ let out a breath of air and heavily sat down on the bed. My shifted focus caught his head now, and I noticed the sharp pulses of pain in his eyes and in the front of his head.

"He had a reason to be so arrogant, after all," JJ muttered, rubbing a hand over his eyes. "Well, not anymore. When he wakes up again the next decade, he will have to reevaluate his abilities."

"Are you alright, JJ?" I asked, crawling closer to put a hand on his shoulder. "You are in pain. Want me to take it away?"

"You can see that now?" JJ asked with surprise in his voice. He turned his head to me and ran a hand over the edge of my face. "It hurts, but I am much more worried about you. Desmond… from a tactical standpoint, his choice of place and time was one of the best possible, but it certainly shows us the depth of his lack of morals. Not to mention, of all nights, he picked one when I was asleep. It was a good thing you woke up when you did."

"I don't know what woke me up." I shivered with my entire body. No matter how I forced the fear away from the front of my head, it betrayed me with this shaking. The best I could do was to clench my teeth and keep breathing evenly. And talk, too. "But I'm alright, thanks to you. God, you always protect me… There had to be a day when it will be my turn. Let me cast a painkiller spell on you, please, JJ."

"If you insist. Do you need me to do something for it?" JJ hummed. "Is it harder or easier to do that on someone else, ma chèrie?"

I shrugged. "No difference, really, unless that someone is a witch. Just sit still for a moment, alright?"

JJ followed my instructions by freezing as deathly still as only vampires could—not a twitch, not a breath. Human muscles would tire from being immobile, but vampires… they weren't absolutely inexhaustible, but cut it awfully close.

Plucking the pain that gathered in his body and throwing it out was a matter of a minute, but even after that, JJ didn't relax until I told him I was done.

"This is magnificent," he raised a hand to his eyes again, then turned fully towards me. "This kind of instant relief… Is an immense pleasure in itself. But to be able to give that relief from pain, of all things…" He traced a finger over my side, making me shiver violently again, and smiled. "I have to say, I missed a lot in life by avoiding dealing with witches whenever I could."

I couldn't see it with my eyes, but I could catch it in his aura. Emotional layer was easy to read. Emotions were like a cloud, and liked to spread, spread, spread around for everyone to see, but only a few at a time. This time, the emotion that spread was lust.

"JJ, there's a comatose guy in our bedroom!" I took that naughty hand in mine and pointed it in Desmond's direction. "We should dress and deal with it and not do whatever you are thinking right now."

"Of course. Forgive me, I was—"

"Caught up in the instant relief." I gave JJ a sour look that I knew he saw with his cat-like night-seeing eyes, and stood up from the bed to get to the light switch.

"You can say that." JJ went to his clothes, casually stepping over Desmond's comatose body.

The sharp overhead light lit the room the same as it did every other late night or early morning. There was little to show that someone just broke in the house except for the breaker himself, and for the projectiles—just random rocks (not that they weren't deadly in a vampire's hand)—that he threw at me.

And besides the break-in, it was just a normal night. I wasn't sure if it should calm me or not, but it felt much better to close my well and orient myself by sight instead of other sight. After quickly throwing on something to cover myself, I went to the sleeping Desmond.

"So, what should we do with him?"